Okay, got another question for y'all... as long as I'm gonna be at my boat with a big tube of silicone this weekend to seal my mast better, I may as well try to re-seal my hulls.

Like a lot of people I guess, when I'm flying a hull for any amount of time, water gets in (from where I dunno) so that I have to drain quite a bit out when I'm done sailing.

Where does this water come in and where can I put silicone to prevent it? Should I put a bead all the way along under the lip of each hull? Or scrape around the pilons and put fresh silicone there? Or what?

Most likely, it is coming in around the pylons. I was having the same problem, and all I had to do was scrape the old sealant off and get it nice and clean. Then I used 3M 5200 Marine sealant on all the pylons. It's really good stuff, and remains flexible even in the sun and salt water.

I'm not sure, but if the water is coming in where the deck meets the hull, that could be a structural problem. I would think you would need epoxy and fiberglass for that.

Check this out - one hull I get the PFFFT of air when I remove the drain plug... and yet somehow I also get water out. Go figure. I don't know exactly where the water is coming in, but I'll start with the area around the pylons and go from there. If I can get a buddy to blow in the drain area then maybe I can find the source of the leaks. 8D

Well okay, the silicone around the pylons stopped water from getting into the port hull, but the starboard one still takes on a few pints.

Yesterday I un-stepped the mast, removed the rudders, and with some help flipped the boat upside-down. Then I added a little blue dye to some epoxy and drew a bead all the way around both hulls on the hull/deck seam. I dunno if this will help but it can't hurt. I meant to take some pics but I forgot my camera, so... alas. I added the blue dye (a) so that I can tell at a glance if any epoxy has fallen off and (b) my mainsheet is blue so it'll kinda match.

When I first got my boat, she would take on lots of water. More than enough, everytime I beached I drained it all out. I was comming to think, "HEY I got a water making machine! to bad its salty"

But seriously. When I restored her, I removed the old inserts inside the pylons, and put new foam in. I bought that foam you can buy in department stores. The kind of foam you spray on and it starts to expand. I sprayed plenty of that stuff into the pylons. Sealed around the pylons with sealant and all the plugs and hardware, wich are brand new, were sealed as well. Now everytime I take my boat out, NO WATER comes out. It amazes me how dry she stays. It may be worth while to look inside the pylons, and while you are it, epoxy that frame! Trust me on this. YOU WILL NOTICE the difference.

Oh, I'm *definately* looking into epoxying the frame. I need to research that some more, but it'll probably be a few more months before I get around to doing that. I'll have a better idea when exactly probably... next weekend. I find out my next assignment on Friday so then I'll start making plans for the spring.

The wind was ~15mph but it kept switching directions which made things kind of annoying. Anyway, after being out for 2½ hours or so, I can report a satisfying "pffft" sound from *both* hulls now. This made me think that I wouldn't get any water out, but actually I got maybe 1-2 pints from each hull.

Note that I didn't capsize at all today (mainly because the water was cold and my GF doesn't have a wetsuit, so I was taking it real easy with 50°F water) but both the hulls DID get out of the water quite a bit. That is still much less water out of the starboard hull than before.